Eric Gerets will be unveiled as the new Al Jazira head coach on Thursday, just one week after the club dispensed with the services of Walter Zenga.
Jazira, who parted ways with Zenga following their exit from the AFC Champions League against Al Ain last Tuesday, released a short statement to the media on Tuesday night to reveal that Gerets would attend a press briefing at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium on Thursday afternoon.
The Belgian is expected to arrive in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday to finalise his contract, with his new club remaining tight lipped on the length of the deal.
Former PSV Eindhoven, Marseille and Al Hilal coach Gerets heads to the capital on the back of a championship-winning season with Lekhwiya, whom he led to a third Qatari Stars League title.
However the 60-year-old was unable to guide the Doha-based club out of an AFC Champions League group containing Al Ain, while also slipping to defeat in the Crown Prince Cup final against El Jaish.
He does bring a wealth of experience to the role at Jazira though, having won titles with clubs in six different countries, and also led Morocco to the Arab Nations Cup in 2012.
With the Atlas Lions Gerets handed Abdelaziz Barrada his international debut, a player he will be reunited with at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium.
Gerets will hope to fare better than his former Belgium international colleague Franky Vercauteren in Abu Dhabi.
Vercauteren was appointed Jazira coach in the summer of 2011 following the club’s maiden UAE league triumph under Abel Braga, but lasted less than a year as he was dismissed despite winning two-thirds of his games in charge.
When Gerets is unveiled tomorrow he will become Jazira’s sixth coach in just three years since Braga returned to Brazil following 36 successful months in charge.
